Booklist

*Starred Review* Writers with criminals for heroes have problems on their hands, the greatest being the question of how one makes the criminal sympathetic without seeming to side with psychopaths. Green, author of Shooting Dr. Jack (2001) and The Angel of Montague Street (2003), solves this problem by giving us a hero with a credible backstory, wry self-awareness, and a compelling problem to which he responds with heroism. Manny, who has been a “guest of the state” in Ossining, New York, a few times, narrates his story with a wonderful mix of street smarts and the kind of reflectiveness you might get if you’ve been sent away for a few years. Fresh out of the pen, Manny hooks up with another burglar for a million-dollar heist that goes bad in the sense that his partner in crime kills the other heisters and is after Manny (who has tricked the trickster by making off with the money). This gives Manny’s story its racing pulse. The heart of the story, though, is Manny’s love for his five-year-old son, trapped in the foster-care system. Can Manny pull off the heist of his life by getting his own son out of the system and running off to Maine? Tension and suspense abound as Manny tries to create a new life while his ex-partner and the cops attempt to track him down. Way past terrific. Connie Fletcher